Full-Body Standing Mat

Hi. I'm Gia, and today we're gonna do a standing class. It's gonna be a little bit of balance, a little bit of movement to get your heart rate up, and just a lot of fun. So we're gonna start with your feet, hit distance apart. These are just soft and we're gonna do a little standing roll down. So you're just gonna roll your chin to your chest.

Roll all the way down, arms are heavy, knees are soft. Try to keep your weight toward the balls of your feet, not towards your heels. Just hang here for a second. Let your spine decompress. Just breathe. And exhale.

One more deep inhale and exhale and then roll all the way up. Just notice how your body's feeling. Gonna do this at the end so you can kinda compare to see if it feels a little bit different. So you're gonna start with your hands on your hips. We're gonna do a little standing footwork.

So you're gonna have your heels together toes apart in a little v. It's not ballet, so it's not all the way into a first position. It's kind of a narrow v. Your knees are gonna track over your toes. Your spine is staying long with your head, shoulders, and hips in the same line. You're just gonna bend your knees and straighten.

So it's like you're sliding up and down a wall and straighten. Bend and stretch and just breathe how it feels comfortable to you. I like to have my hands on your hip, my hips. If you wanna have your hands out to the side or in a different position, that's fine with me. Bend and stretch. Bend squeeze legs together two more. Last one, you're gonna hold this one down and then go up an inch and down an inch for a little pulse and pulse.

Got it. Keeping the hips under you again. You're not leaning forward. Three two one straighten all the way up, you're gonna turn your feet parallel. So again, hip distance apart, your weights even on your feet, hands on your hips, so you get deep inhales, you bend, and stretch. Bend. And it's like you have a wall behind you so you're not bending forward.

Rememicking the reformer with this exercise. Bend and stretch except on the reformer, you can go a little further. But we're just going where we can. Bend stretch. Good. We have four more.

Get a nice little stretch in your ankles as you bend. And two more. Hold this last one and little pulses, up an inch and down an inch and pulse. Good. Keep breathing. Start to feel the abdominals pulling in.

Working the entire body. Active. Three, two, one, straighten all the way up. We're gonna bring your feet nice and wide. So I like to go a little bit wider.

If you have longer legs or you're taller, you might need to go even wider than me. Again, you're turning out from your hips, not as far as you can. I think of going to the corners. Neither are tracking over the toes. Again, your spine is nice and straight. You're gonna bend down and then back up. In this position, you can go a little further than the first two. And, Ben, so go as low as you can without leaning forward.

And, Ben, we're trying to keep the hips under you again, bend, and stretch. Good. And bend and stretch. Two more. Hold this last one.

Little pulses. Up an inch and down an inch and pulse. Think of those inner thighs coming forward, rotating your hips or rotating your legs from your hips. We have four, three, two, one, come all the way up. And then you're gonna bend back down again.

Try to keep your head in the same level. You're gonna lift one heel up and then lower it back down. Other heel lifts up and lower. So just the heel is moving. The rest of your body is staying the same level, then lift and lower, lift and lower. Four more.

And three should feel his inner thighs burning. Two, last one, and stretch your legs all the way up. Take a breath. Come back down. Now you're going to continue on with both heels. If both heels up and down, if that doesn't feel good, you can go back to the single leg.

And both heels up and down again, your head stays at the same level the whole time. Four more and three two last one and then stretch your legs. Bring your legs together, shake them out. We're gonna come back to parallel. We're gonna go into a releve.

So both legs are gonna stay straight. Pull up in your quads. Pull up in your glutes. You're gonna lift both heels up and down and lift and lower up. And down try to relax the shoulders. Keep pulling up in the abdominals.

Keep them nice and active. We'll do two more like this and we're going to running. So you're gonna look both heels up lower one heel down, bend the other leg, lift up other side. So one leg's bent, one heel is down and up and down. Good. Trying to stay centered.

So you're not rocking side to side. You're having trouble balancing, you can do this on the floor instead of the mat, having that cushion sometimes makes it a little bit harder, and up and down, up and down, two more sets. Trying to get a nice stretch on the toes as you bend that leg. Both heels up and then lower both heels down with control, shake out your legs and we're going to bring your arms in front of you in a gini position. So we're going to get your heart rate up a little bit.

So we're going to bring your knees to your chest. So think of your knees trying to come up to your arms without bending your spine forward. So keeping a long spine, you're going to bring one knee up and down, other knee up. And down. So the goal is to try to get your knee to your arms and not bring your arms down to your leg. Up and down. You can kind of speed up your tempo if you'd like. Up and up.

Good. Just breathe as you go on. Joseph Pilates used to have this in his little warm up sometimes. I think you would see it when you'd go to Jacob's pillow. We're gonna go for five and four three, two, and one.

Now we're gonna go side to side. So we're gonna turn out your legs just in like that v that we had before and same thing, knee to the side and down. So we'll go a little slow to start. Just to kind of get the movement. Again, try not to lean or bring your arms down to your leg.

You have to shift your weight a little bit, but try not to shift so much that it's obvious. We're trying to stay under you. Good. You can go a little faster. And up and up. Keep pulling up in your abdominals. Get that heart rate up a little bit and up and up.

Lift. Spine is staying nice and long. Four and three. Two, last one, and then shake out your legs, shake out your arms. We're gonna bring your hands back to your hips.

So we're gonna do a little bit of a balance. So if you struggle with balance, you can come off the mat, you can grab onto a chair, the wall or counter, whatever you need. If you want to challenge your balance, you can have both hands on your hips. So you're gonna bring one leg out to the side. You're gonna lift that leg up, find your balance.

Now the leg that you're standing on, you're gonna sink into that hip, like you're just relaxing. Then you're gonna lift up off that hip. So you sink down and then lift it up, sink down and lift. So you'll notice that the level changes a little bit. The leg that's out to the side doesn't move.

It's just that standing leg that you're working and up sync and lift, sync, and lift two more, sync, and lift last one. You're going to hold that lifted position. Now the stay, free leg is going to move. So you're going to bring the leg forward and back. I like to flex my foot just to reach out through that heel. You can point it if that feels better to you. Front and back.

For more sets, should feel that standing leg doing a lot of work. So even though we're moving one leg, it's the standing leg that's getting a lot of the work. Now you're gonna bring your leg back in line with your body. Take a rest for a second. Shake out that hip. We're gonna come back to that same side, find your balance. Oop. Now you're gonna lift that leg up and down.

Doesn't have to go too high. Just a few inches. Lift up and down, lift and lower. Four more. And three, two.

Last one, I'm gonna circle that leg up and around, up and around. Good. It's okay if you're standing like it's wobbling. It's actually giving you more work. Two more. Last one, reverse that circle back and around.

Try to reach out through that free leg again. Get it nice and long. We have four more. Should feel that burn in that standing leg. Three, two, and one. Shake out that standing leg.

Should feel nice working that hip. We're gonna do all that on the other side. So when you're ready, find your balance. This is my more challenging side. So you might have one that's more challenging as well.

You're gonna sit down into that hip and then lift it back up. And sit and lift. But sometimes it helps with balance if you find something to focus on. That's not moving. Just helps you balance a little bit more. Three more.

And two. Last one. Good. Hold that hip up. You're gonna bring that same, a free leg. Sorry. Forward and back.

Reach out through that heel if your foot's flexed. Reach and back. Four more and back. Three back. Two.

Last one. Good. Shake out that leg. Give it a break. And then we'll go back to that balance. Reach that foot out long.

You're gonna lift the leg up and down. Lift and lower up and down. Keep pulling your abdominals in to help support your balance. Three, two, try not to lock either knee, circle the leg around. Front, two, three, four, five, six, seven and reverse back. Two three four five six seven eight bring that leg down.

Should feel the burn in that hip. We're gonna bring your feet wide. We're gonna stretch out that hip. So you're gonna roll down hands on the mat. You're gonna keep your hands centered and you're just gonna switch your hips.

So you're gonna lean to one side, get a nice little stretch on that hip and on the side of the leg. And then switch so the other hip goes up one more time each side. Just stretching out your legs a little bit and then switch. We'll give your legs a little bit of a break. You're gonna roll up.

You wanna work your arms. So feet are gonna come, hip distance apart. Arms are down by your side. You wanna reach your fingers long. Keep your knees soft so they're not locked.

And pull up in your abdominals, keep your spine long. We're going to do a chest expansion. So you're going to push your arms back, hold, turn your head to one direction, turn it to the other direction, come back to center, and then arms come back to your side. Put your arms back, look to the second direction first, then the first direction, center and arms come forward. Push back, look one way, then the other, center, arms come back. Push behind you, look the second direction, first direction, center, one more each direction, and look one way and the other way, center, and back.

And push, look the second direction, first direction, center. Now you're gonna push your arms back and hold. You can bend into a little squat, lower your chest down so you're in a bit of a hinge and you're gonna push your arms up. Up, up, up, think of your arms staying nice and long. We'll have four, three, two, one, come all the way up. You're going to bend back into that little spot, come into that hinge, push your arms up and hold, turn your palms in to face each other and you're gonna push your arms together together together.

Good. Keep those arms reaching long. We'll have four, three, two, one, lift up. Shake out your arms. We're gonna reach your arms out to a tee.

So again, feet are gonna stay where they are. These are just kind of soft so they're not locked. Arms out to a tee. You're gonna push your hands back. So think of the palms facing back.

Push your arms behind you. Bring them back to the side, turn your palms up, push your arms back. So we're gonna alternate, palms push back, palms up, push back, palms face back, and palms face up, and back, and up. And to keep pushing. Think of opening the chest each time back.

Just gonna do this for a little while. You'll start to feel the shoulders fatiguing. Try to keep those arms reaching long and up. Palms face back. And up and back and up. Reach those arms as long as you can last set.

I'm gonna reach your arms out to a tee, come into a little fist, reach those shoulders long and you're just gonna circle the arms around. Circle circle circle. Try not to move the rest of your body. Just the arms. We'll go for five and four three two and one reverse the circle and other way.

Should feel those shoulders starting to fatigue a little bit. Just a little bit of upper body work. Four three two one, and then bring your arms down, shake them out, you can shake your legs. We're gonna bring your arms up to a goal post position. So your elbows are right out from your shoulders.

Your hands are right over your elbows. You're gonna bring one hand down, keep the other hand up, and then switch. Just keep alternating, switch, and switch. Again, you're gonna feel those shoulders burning. Sometimes it takes a few reps, but you'll start to feel it.

Try to keep the shoulders away from the ear so they don't creep up especially as you get tired. Nice. We're gonna do five and four, three, two, and one and then both hands up, release your arms down, roll out your shoulders, we'll give your arms a little break. So we're gonna bring your feet a little wider, kind of like what we did for the standing footwork with the second position, but we're gonna have your feet parallel this time. So your knees are facing forward. Again, try not to lock your knees. You want them a little soft but keep them strong.

Hands are gonna go behind your head, one handed over the other. Living up, you're gonna bend over to the side. Try not to rotate at all. So you're just gonna stay right to the side and then back up and other side. This road or something up and bending over side to side.

Again, no rotation. It's like you're between two paints of glass. Up and over. Up and over. Again, in the beginning doesn't feel like much.

But after a bit, you start to feel those obliques firing up. Still pulling your abs in and up and over. Up and over. So you're trying to get one elbow up to the ceiling, the other elbow pointing down to the floor. We'll do five more sets. And four three, keep lengthening before you go to each side so you're not just collapsing two. Last one.

You're gonna go to the first side and hold. You're gonna bring one arm out and the other arm over. So you have a little side stretch. Keep reaching this top arm over as far as you can so you have a nice length on that side of your body. Try to keep that shoulder away from your ear though.

Bring your hands back behind your head, use your obliques to pull your back up, and then over to the other side, and then reach your arms out away from each other. Again, finding the length on the side of your body pulling your abs and ribs back still, and then hands behind your head all the way up. We're gonna bring your arms out to a tee for a standing saw. So the goal for this one is to try to keep your hips where they are. We're just gonna rotate from your waist So arms are going to be nice and wide. You're going to twist to one direction.

You're going to reach towards your baby toe and you're going to offer three two one come back up twist to the other side and reach towards your baby toe for three two, one, and up. Again, trying to keep the hips still rotating from the waist three, two, one, and up. Try not to lock the knees, twist and reach three, two, one, and up. Try to reach both arms long so it's not just the arm that's down. Think of the arm that's going up to the ceiling each time too. Twist in reach for three. Two, one and up. Twist and reach for three. Two, one and up.

We're gonna do two more each side and three, two, one, and up. And twist three, two, one. Keep pulling the waist back as you're bending forward. Three, two one last set, twist and reach for three two one last one, and twist and reach, and up. Bring your arms down, bring your legs together, shake out your legs and we're gonna come to the back of your mat.

So you're gonna stand with your feet, hip distance apart. We're gonna bring your hands just down by your side. We're gonna do a standing roll down to a plank. So you're gonna bring your chin to your chest. Roll down. Keep your knees soft.

And then walk yourself out to a plank. We're just gonna hold that plank, find a position that works for you. If you'd rather come onto your forearms, you can. Try to keep your legs long, abs pulled in. Just hold. We're gonna do another plank challenge just like we did in the previous class.

And then from here, you're gonna walk your hands back, knees are soft, roll up one bone at a time. We're gonna add on. If for any reason you want to do this plank that we did before, you can just hold the plank. We're gonna add some movement to it. So you're gonna bring your chin to your chest, roll it down.

Walk out to your plank from here. You're gonna rock forward and back. So you rock front. And back. Front and back. The nice thing about when you go back is you get a little bit of a stretch on your calf. Try to stay in one straight line from your head down to your feet.

If you want to come on to your knees, it's always an option. We'll have four three two one. Stay here. You're gonna walk your hands back. Try not to shift your hips too much. Neither soft. You're gonna roll up one bone at a time.

Roll back down. So again, you can do the previous plank if you like. We're gonna change it up a little bit. So find your plank position. We're gonna lift one leg up and then lower back down.

Other leg lifts up and lower. Lift and lower. So nothing else is moving but that leg and up and down up and down. Two more sets. Keep pushing away from the mat with the hands or the forearms if that's where you are. Last one, and then walk back weight in the paws of your feet. You're gonna roll up one bone at a time.

And then last one, you're gonna roll down. We're gonna do a push up. So you're gonna walk out to your plank. You can come onto your knees, or stay on your feet, turn your elbows back, elbows are gonna go right by your side, so you're just gonna bend and straighten. We're gonna do five.

Ben and stretch. Ben stretch two more. Last one, and then lower your knees down, push back into a child's pose to get a nice little stretch. You can press your spine. And then when you're ready, we're gonna come into a lunge stretch. So you're gonna stay on the mat.

You're gonna bring one leg forward. You're gonna push your hips forward. Try to keep the front knee over the ankle and then just push yourself forward. If you need to, you can come onto your fingertips or your fist or if you wanna challenge your balance, you can have your hands on your knees. Whatever works for you.

Try to relax into that stretch. You want to feel opening in the front of that hip. Just breathe into it. However, you're stretching, try to keep your spine long. If your hands are on your knees, you can bring one hand down opposite hand that's the, foot that's forward, and you reach the other arm up toward the ceiling into a twist.

Breathe into it, reach that arm up as high as you can. And then bring that arm back down. Keep both hands on the mat. Again, you can come onto your fist or your fingertips if you need to. You're gonna shift your weight back into a hamstring stretch. Flex the front foot and then we're gonna try to get the spine long. Again, you can come onto your fingertips if you need to. Just lengthen the spine.

Think of sticking your tail out and trying to keep your hips even. Should feel nice. A little stretch in the back of your leg. Take one more deep inhale and exhale. And then bring your weight forward a little bit so you can switch to the other leg.

So the other foot's gonna come forward. Again, your knee is over your ankle. You're gonna push your hips forward. You're gonna have your hands down, your fist, fingertips, or you can find your balance with your hands on your knee. Think of pushing that hip forward, finding a stretch on that front of the hip, and just finding length in your spine again so nothing's crunching down. Should feel good.

Start a little cool down to kind of get your breath back after all that standing work we just did. And then from here, bring your opposite hand down. You're gonna reach up into a twist. Reach that arm up to the ceiling as much as you can. Find some length as you're twisting.

Still keep pushing that back hip forward. So you get a stretch in there. Bring your hand down. Shift your weight back. So you're stretching your hamstring.

You're gonna flex that front foot. Again, think of sticking your tail out lengthening your spine. Try to pull all five toes back. Again, if you need to come onto your fingertips or your fist or if you have something that you can prop yourself up on like a book or yoga block, you can grab that as well. And stretch out that hamstring. Deep inhale and exhale and then bring your leg back.

So you're gonna tuck your toes under. Bring your feet flat. Hang down here for a second and then just roll up one bone at a time. So we can come back to standing. It's nice to end a little vertical.

So you're gonna stand with your feet, hip distance apart. Hands on your hips. We're gonna go back into that running in place that we did earlier. So you're gonna lift both heels up and then you're gonna lower one heel, bend the other leg, lift that heel up, and then both heels up and switch. Just keep alternating trying to stay right in the middle, so you're not leaning side to side. Your hips are staying facing the front.

You're not letting them shift and down lifting up and down. Up and down two more sets. Last set. Getting a nice stretch on the toes. And then both heels up one more time. Lower your heels down with control, soften your knees, arms just down by your side.

You're just gonna roll down one bone at a time. Let's notice how you feel. If it feels different than it did at the beginning of the class, hopefully you feel a little looser. Maybe everything feels a little longer, a little more grounded. Take one more deep breath, exhale and then keep your weight forward over the balls of your feet as you roll up one bone at a time.

And then roll your shoulders back at the top. And that's it for today. I hope you enjoyed that class and I'll see you for the next one.